UPDATED Traffic & Weather: I-5, 14 now open

Snow covered the southbound 14 freeway this morning forcing travelers to crawl through south Palmdale, Acton and Agua Dulce. The northbound 14 is closed from 6.6 miles south of Palmdale at Soledad Canyon to the Junction of 138 due to snow.

The I-5 is closed in both directions from four miles north of Highway 126 at Lake Hughes north to the Los Angeles-Kern County line.

Highway 14 is closed from 6.6 miles south of Palmdale at Soledad Canyon to the Highway 138 junction.

The closures will remain in effect "probably overnight," said Sgt. Rob Lund of the California Highway Patrol's Newhall station.

UPDATED 7:30 p.m. Wednesday:A winter storm blasted into the Santa Clarita Valley on Wednesday, stranding 30 snowbound motorists, forcing closure of both major thoroughfares and blowing a helicopter over onto its mechanic, killing him.CHP officers shut down Interstate 5 in the northern SCV at about 2 p.m.

"It just became too hazardous to move the motoring public though there," said CHP spokesman Officer John Lutz. "We don't want anyone becoming disabled."

Officers closed Highway 14 north of Santa Clarita at about 9.30 a.m. and it remained closed late Wednesday with heavy snow reported from Agua Dulce to Palmdale.

CHP escorted motorists on I-5 from four miles north of the Highway 126 junction at Lake Hughes Road to 25 miles south of Bakersfield at Laval Road due to snow.

At least 30 motorists diverted onto snow-covered side roads were stuck in snow on Sierra Highway on the east side of the valley at noon, the CHP Web site reported.

Among those stuck were a single female occupant of a car just east of Wallace Canyon Road on Sierra Highway and a father and daughter in a 1998 Gold Lexus on the same highway near Red Rover Mine Road.

Most of the CHP officers of the Newhall station were dispatched to the highway closure.

Motorists affected by traffic re-routed from the highway and the Interstate made city traffic heavier than usual, said a spokesman for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station.

Deputies also closed Valencia Boulevard between Creekside Road and Magic Mountain Parkway early Wednesday afternoon for about two hours to repair temporary metal plates that had shifted and caused a traffic hazard.

Rainfall was .08 of an inch Wednesday in Newhall, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Steven Van Horn.

He expected the snow level to drop to 1,500 feet Wednesday night with temperatures below freezing and a frost advisory in effect until 9 a.m. today.

"This rain, and the rainfall on Monday, are part of the same low-pressure system which is definitely the coldest we've had this year," Van Horn said.

"We have significant snowfall amounts in many areas especially the Antelope Valley," he said. "This is a big snow-fall event."

Snow and freezing temperatures in and around Placerita Canyon sent vehicles skidding off the road and caused minor injuries for some collision victims Wednesday.

One vehicle flipped over on Escondido Canyon Road - scene of a single-vehicle crash that killed one man Friday night - about four miles north of Highway 14.

The rollover caused only minor injuries but snarled traffic and created other chain-reaction traffic collisions, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Other collisions occured as CHP officers were closing down the highway.

By 7 a.m., the storm, bringing heavy snow at times, caused white-out conditions on Highway 14 from Palmdale to Acton, prompting the California Highway Patrol shut it down in both directions from Soledad Canyon Road to Avenue S.

Skidding vehicles on the highway also prompted Department of Transportation snow plows and sand trucks to clear lanes from Pearblossom Highway to Avenue S in Palmdale.